SMS Messaging Using the Pocket PC

Recently, I wrote about
using a Mac and a Bluetooth-enabled phone to send SMS
messages. While it's definitely convenient to use the Mac to send
messages when you are in the office (or an iBook when on the road), it
would be even better if you could do it with a more portable device
like PDA. In this article I will show you how you could send and
receive SMS messages on your phone using a Pocket PC.

I will use my iPaq 3870 (a Pocket PC 2002 device), the Ericsson
T68i phone, and the Simple SMS application from Visual IT
Software. Simple SMS supports Bluetooth and cable connections to your
Pocket PC. Besides using Bluetooth, you can also use infrared to
connect your Pocket PC to your phone, something that is useful if your
phone does not support Bluetooth.

Downloading and installing Simple SMS

You can download the demo version of Simple SMS v3.0 from http://www.visualit.co.uk/simplesms.htm. The
demo version is fully functional, but you're limited to sending
messages of 25 characters or less.

Installation is simple; expand the downloaded ZIP file and double
click on the executable. The next time your Pocket PC is synchronized
via ActiveSync, Simple SMS will be installed on your Pocket PC.

Figure 1. Simple SMS on the Pocket PC

Before you use Simple SMS, you need to pair up your Pocket PC and
your Bluetooth-enabled phone. Once that is done, you can connect to
the serial port on the phone:

Figure 2. Using the Serial Port of the Bluetooth connection

Next you need to start Simple SMS on your Pocket PC and do some
configurations:

Figure 3. Configuring the Simple SMS

I will use my phone's network setting to send SMS messages, so I
need to check "Use phone Service Centre". I also enabled "Delete
messages after receive". The reason is that if messages are left on
the phone, Simple SMS will download each message every time I check
for new messages, even though old messages have already been
downloaded. So, to save time, I chose to have the messages archived on
my Pocket PC.

Figure 4. Configuring the Simple SMS

You can also choose to use other serial ports for the Bluetooth
connection (see Figure 3, View -> Options -> General). Once the
configuration is done, you are ready to send and receive messages.

The first thing you might want to do is to download whatever
messages you have on your phone to the Pocket PC. To do so, click on
the Send and Receive button:

Figure 5. Viewing received messages

You may also use the Actions -> Receive options to download all
the messages from your phone:

Figure 6. Receiving messages from the phone

To send a message, click on the New button.

Figure 7. Sending a message to multiple recipients

Simple SMS has full integration with the Contacts database in
Pocket PC 2002. When you want to send a message, just select it from a
list. Likewise, when a message is received, the sender's name will be
displayed if the Contacts database contains an entry for the sender.
Another nice feature of Simple SMS is that you can send messages to
multiple recipients; a very useful feature when group messaging is
required.

Besides receiving and sending SMS messages, Simple SMS also allows
SMS messages to be exported to a text file for backup purposes.
Another cool feature it that it allows you to send long messages
beyond the limit set by SMS's 160 characters. But note that this
feature only works if the recipient is also using Simple SMS.

One complaint is that I cannot make use of the Phone Book on my
phone to send messages Though Simple SMS integrates with the Contacts
on the Pocket PC, I kept most of my contacts on my phone and would
like to use the Pocket PC for sending SMS messages only. If I could
use the Phone book on my phone, Simple SMS would be perfect.

Chinese SMS

The Simple SMS site claims that it's able to display Unicode
characters, but I was unable to display Chinese SMS messages I
received on my phone. I could only see squares placeholders. With some
searching, I managed to download CE-Star
Suite 2.0, a shareware utility for inputting and displaying
Chinese characters on Pocket PCs.

Once CE-Star Suite was installed, I was able to display Chinese SMS
on Simple SMS:

Figure 8. Viewing a message in Chinese

I managed to compose Chinese messages using the Chinese input. But
for some reason I wasn't able to send the message correctly.

Figure 9. Composing a message in Chinese

My suspicion is that my T68 does not support Chinese input, though
I can view Chinese messages perfectly, as I am not able to select
Chinese input in the settings menu. I guess the steps outlined above
should work on phones that support Chinese input.

Summary

While you may not have the latest SmartPhone that combines voice
and data functionality, the technique discussed here is a good example
of how you could put your existing investments to good use. What's
more, to make yourself seem less geeky, you can hide your Pocket PC
when you are out on a date.